Manga

Hiroko Tabuchi of the NY Times has alengthy piece Japan's recent legislation banning sales of adult material to minors. Along the way there's a lot of "Only in Japan!" stuff:

Because you can't get enough surreal cartooniness today,. here's the first episode of CAT SH*T ONE, an anime version of the war in the MIddle East starring violent bunnies and camels. It's based on the manga series by Motofumi Kobayashi, which was set in the VIetnam War, but there's plenty of guerilla war to go around for reboots. Sadly, the kitty kat Viet Cong in the original are replaced by camel terrorists here.

TCAF just got even more international with the announcement that renowned manga-ka Natsume Ono will be a guest. Ono, creator of not simple, House of Five Leaves, Gente, and Ristorante Paradiso, fits squarely in the "independent spirit" mold of most of the fest's guests and provides a reminder of the artistic diversity that manga offers. However she's also a very successful artist whose Ristorante Paradiso andHouse of Five Leaves have been adapted into anime, viewable in the US on Hulu.com, Funimation.com, and Crunchyroll.com, in North America.

Last week the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the winners of the 4th Annual International Manga Award. The International Manga Award - the...

Tokyopop has just signed a deal with Diamond Book Distributors for distribution to both comics shops and bookstores. This marks Tokyopop's return to Diamond...

Yesterday Japanese publishing giant Kodansha held an event to announce their 2011 manga plans. This was fortuitous because since they have launched their American imprint, observers have noted their output has been minimal given the depth of their catalog. In October it was announced that Del Rey Manga would end and its Kodansha licensed titles would go over to Kodansha proper, while Random House would act as distributor. With that in mind the list is quite ambitious, and includes a mix of pick-ups from Del Rey, new titles and some titles formerly licensed by other US publishers:

How do they do so many pages? Three hours of spare time a week. And we thought WE had it rough. Via Kwanza Johnson.

Well here we are, the final month of the year. Most publishers have already launched their big titles last month, so that titles would be...

Viz has just released info on some of its spring manga license, including at least one pick-up from the now defnuct CMX line, TENJO...

More at Comics Alliance.

Naoki Urasawa is almost surely the most important genre-related cartoonist working today. The recently concluded Pluto and still-coming out 21st Century Boys have more suspense, action and mystery in one volume than entire months of most other publishers comics. But he remains a bit of an acquired taste here in the US -- cartoonists love him, but sales remain modest. So maybe it's good news that Illumination Entertainment is developing a live action/CGI PLUTO movie .

While comics fans were celebrating comics and other delights at New York Comic Con, publishers and fans in Europe were congregating in Frankfurt, Germany,...